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Thursday, 19 January 2017

Mumbai Magic - The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2017

The Marathon in Mumbai is an annual affair for me
from it's first edition in 2004 where we were around 80 finishers, to
yesterday in 2017 when we were around 5000, but with the engagement of
the city and it's people - it is unlike any other in India.

Have
always had my batchmate Jerry cheering me on at the base of Peddar road at
around the 10K mark and then at around 35k on the way back.

Haji Ali in
all it's glory early morning,

the Hi Fives of kids oozing energy at Worli
Fishing Village and Mahim and Dadar in particular, the residents with
all their snacks and toffees and water at Worli, Dadar and Peddar road,
the dholaks and dancers at Bandra Reclamation,

the Japanese group on the
top of Peddar road, and the smiling policemen have always been
wonderful connects.

But the most special part of the Mumbai
Marathon Experience year on year are with fellow runners, some whom I
don't know at all and exchange a smile of a cheer, some whom I meet
annually at this party, and other close friends and some whom I am lucky
to run into, at this social, and re-connect.

I stuck mostly to
my plan this year with the core objective of meeting up with as many people of
different paces and finishing with a smile, as I used this to physically
be back into shape after a long hiatus given the Delhi pollution.
I started a little ahead of the 4 hour bus and somewhere around
Chowpati joined Dinesh in his 4:15 bus. Hopped on and hopped off of many
buses after that as the sea link emerged out of the mist and haze with a
gorgeous orange sun. The Bandra Reclamation dance and music troupe were
truly energising - hats off to them.

The icing on the cake for
me was at around km 25, running into two old friends - Breeze Sharma who
had just run a 100 miler the week before and was cooling down with this
Marathon and with Pedong express - Roshni - who was also taking it
easy. We chatted about various experiences, tales of running - both
highs and lows, of cheating, or breaking of records and about each
other. It was a wonderful connect - we were taking it easy and soaking
it in, making the most of our time together. I had always wanted to run
with breeze behind me, and a gentle light in front, and this time, I had
both, with Breeze and Roshni as we finished the run together!!

I
always look forward to the after party party at Leopold's where we are
all 5 year old kids again. This time was no exception and it was
wonderful to connect with fellow blistered and bruised and energised
folks. This time we were perhaps 4 year olds!!
Then I went to
Cafe Mondegar and saw all the staff wearing singlets - where the front
said - the race is over, its beer time now, and the back had a print of
several runners headed to the finish line - for beer. Only in Mumbai!!
The whole city really does get engaged.

Cheers to Mumbai. You
sure infect all those who come from various cities, towns and villages
and India and I am sure that slowly and steadily, other runs across the
country will become more and more engaging for the city and the
participants.

Cheers to running bringing all of us together
regardless of caste, creed, gender, economics, religion..... and at the
finish line, gets us weak at the knees

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About Me

In 2007, I started a venture focused on promoting running in India and making it fun. To sustain I would seek to work with brands to connect them powerfully and meaningfully with their target - via running
I switched gears after a 25 year Corporate career in Marketing. I have traveled all over India and to over 50 countries, and have realised that all of us share much more than we think.
I started running 16 years ago and have now reached one of my targets of running 50 marathons. The other 2 targets of running one in each continent (The Antarctic not yet done) and qualifying for the Boston Marathon, remain